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Battle Packs - Duel on Naboo and Bespin Battle

POTF2.com posted an image from the Hasbro Toy Fair slideshow that shows the mentioned-but-previously-unseen battle packs, Duel on Naboo and Bespin Battle. And, uh . . . wow. "Wow" as in, "Wow, did they seriously sculpt and tool all-new versions of these characters, in vintage-style articulation?" And by "vintage-style articulation," I mean, "real 1978-1985 vintage-style articulation, with only five points each." I am pretty dumbfounded. The lower robes on the Naboo set are just horrible, with the robes actually being part of the legs. Wouldn't it cost more to tool these figures than to re-release older figures, especially older figures with this level of articulation? Kids can't really care if the figures are repackaged from the 90s, and I can't see many collectors jumping on these. I guess if you like modern sculpting but hate articulation, then these are for you. Even Luke's coloring looks like the vintage figure. This just . . . I don't even know.

I'm not. They're trying to save money by going from as many as 5 figures all the way down to 3. They're trying to save even more money by including mainly repacks. This alienated collectors completely and we quit buying them. So now they're putting in the cheapest cr@p they can churn out (it may have been cheaper to create new molds of poorly articulated figures than to make more of an existing mold.) Besides, this way they're just different enough from what is already out there that parents may not balk at buying the same figure in a battlepack that they've already bought for their kids on vintage or movie heroes cards several times this year already. Clearly these aren't aimed at us at all. The big question is are kids going to want subpar figures. I really hope they bomb completely and Hasbro reevaluates the battle pack concept and goes back to putting in environmental pieces and maybe an exclusive figure that wouldn't otherwise be made now and then.

This is a big waste of resources. I have to wonder if Jeff is trying to "make his mark" by switching gears with the brand to appeal to a play-oriented consumer. These look awful, the Naboo figures like they were designed outside the existing structure at Hasbro Star Wars, while the Bespin one has more articulation for Boba but middling sculpting and figures that nobody would want. These are, I might add, what Jeff was referring to when he said of these items at Toy Fair that he was "particularly excited about them, favorite sculpts we've done of these characters, gorgeous, they look exactly like what you see on the screen, it's amazing". Those are quotes from his Toy Fair presentation, calling out special attention to Maul, Fett, and Vader. Now, maybe he's seen something that looks considerably further along and better than what the slide shows, but I am not instilled with confidence.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

POTF2 articulation on figures that have been made and remade several times over the last 15 years? Pass.

If they were going back to the 4-5 figure Battle Packs, then I could see the drop in articulation being partially justified, but I'm pretty sure these are going to cost exactly the same as if the figures were all super-articulated.

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

He is either completely blind or he's living in 1978 and had a peek into the future and saw The Phantom Menace, which is how he designed these figures for the line.

Yeah, I cannot fathom a reasonable reason anybody could make the claims he did either.

Originally Posted by bigbarada

POTF2 articulation on figures that have been made and remade several times over the last 15 years? Pass.

If they were going back to the 4-5 figure Battle Packs, then I could see the drop in articulation being partially justified, but I'm pretty sure these are going to cost exactly the same as if the figures were all super-articulated.

They're probably a little cheaper by having less articulation to assemble, but they're significantly worse than ANY recent versions of those characters, all of which didn't require making new tooling where these do.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Well, I found the Bespin set and I thought the Boba Fett looked kind of cool so I should give this set the benefit of the doubt. Well, let's just say that I'm not reliving the glory days of the POTF2 line right now. I'm actually kind of perplexed by these figures that I see before me.

I do have to make a correction, these do NOT have POTF2 articulation. They have 5-points of articulation and POTF2 figures had 6-points. None of the figures have a swivel waist. The only reason I don't compare the articulation to vintage articulation is because Boba and Luke both have ball joint necks.

Luke feels very light and flimsy. In fact, the TVC Wicket figure feels like it has more heft than this Luke figure. The overall quality of the plastic makes Luke feel like a bootleg toy. Boba Fett is probably the best looking figure overall, but he's like a giant next to Luke. Not quite built like a POTF2 figure, but still pretty "muscular" and "heroic" looking.

Darth Vader is the loser of the bunch. He is sculpted with his elbows pressed up against his sides, so he looks like he's stuck inside a very narrow, invisible doorway. The lightsabers are more flexible than I remember, kind of like undercooked spaghetti noodles and Vader's left hand is sculpted to look like he's checking somebody for a hernia ("Turn your head and cough, Luke, I am your father!"). His helmet is very dull looking with not a hint of shine even though other parts of his body are shiny. His lightsaber also fits very loosely into his hand, so I don't see kids having a lot of fun recreating lightsaber battles with this Vader. It's held into his hand with one of those clear rubber bands in the package and you might want to hold onto that, if you don't want to constantly be searching for Vader's dropped saber.

Luke's lightsaber has a peg so that it can be attached to the figure's belt, but (you guessed it) there is no hole sculpted in Luke's belt for it. It's just as well, the lightsaber blade isn't even removable. Boba and Luke both have working holsters, but Boba's is so loose that his pistol practically hangs out of it. Only the barrel of Luke's pistol fits in his holster, so it's not the most secure fit either.

I never realized just how much I took for granted things like swivel wrists, ball-joint shoulders, waist articulation, and figures that don't suck. Still Boba Fett does look pretty cool in a statuesque, steroid-pumped kind of way.

One word to describe these figures: cheap

"To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence… When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis

I hadn't thought of it until BigB bumped this thread, but it's interesting that this coincides with the new G.I. Joe vehicles having driver figures with similar articulation. They're highly-detailed figures, but they have only five points of articulation--almost a slap in the face, given that Joes have always been known for their articulation. Apparently, at JoeCon this past weekend, Hasbro reps answered the question of "WHY?!?" by saying that it was a cost-cutting measure, and they could either include limited-articulation figures with the vehicles or not include figures at all. (Which is odd--not all vehicles have included figures, and most that have included them have included repaints or kitbashes with limited new parts.)

Like JJL mentioned in the first post, none of this makes sense. These weird BattlePacks and the Joe drivers are both thrown out with the justification being that the limited-articulation figures cost less to produce. However, it seems obvious that it would cost more to tool these figures than to re-release existing figures (which most past BattlePacks and, again, Joe drivers) have been.